OGRES on the moon? Preposterous! How
would they get there? OGREs can't fly!

The following is a beer and pretzels variant for the Steve Jackson
Games publication OGRE/GEV. This variant does not suppose that the milieu created
during the OGRE/GEV timeline (as written by SJG) possessed a form of space flight robust
enough to carry an object as large as an OGRE into orbit; such an idea would be patently
absurd. However, the idea of carrying the fight between the Combine and Pan-Europa
to our nearest satellite is not totally unrealistic. Human beings have barely
scratched the surface of lunar exploration... who knows what remains to be discovered
hidden underneath the lunar dust. Alien Artifacts? Ancient Technology? Rare
minerals...? Certainly something worth fighting for.

LUNAR OGRE VARIANT

I've been picturing a variant for OGRE/GEV on the moon for a while-- after all, space
travel isn't prohibited in the SJ timeline per se, it would just be impossible/too
expensive to boost all these lovely weapons up into space... and I doubt mankind would
ever make a rocket big enough to send an OGRE into space, or even a Superheavy tank.

That doesn't preclude making the stuff up there, however. If you posit that a system of
bases and factories are set up by both the Combine and Pan-Europa, the possibilities open
up for a verrry interesting environment for new battles in the OGRE/GEV system.

It's pretty much in my head at the moment, but here's what I've thought up so far:

The Lunar Environment

All MP costs are the same as "Clear" on Earth, except for the following:

Craters: Treat as SWAMP terrain in GEV-- i.e., 2MPS to enter, chance of
being disabled, and defense doubled.

Cliffs: Changes in Elevation Cost an additional 1MP for every level, LOS
is blocked by elevations, LOS blocked in the hex NEXT to an elevation change if fired on
from above.

Rough: Costs 2 MP to enter.

Railways: All railways are considered to be UNDERGROUND on Luna.
Therefore, they cannot be severed by fire combat. Trains move by the same rules as they do
in GEV. Railways must connect structures together or extend offmap.

New Units

Structures: Moonbases are a new structure.
They can hold up to 5 regular INFs or 3 Space Marines. Defense of 2, Cost 6. Required for
use with factories. Alpha, Beta and Gamma are Moonbases on the map I have made (more
on this later).

Moon Buggy(need to make a new counter):
Attack 2 Defense 2 Move 3/2, like a GEV. Highly agile civilian utility vehicle for
movement of maintenance crews on the Lunar Surface (hastily converted to military use).
Cost 4 holds up to 2 squads. Passenger INF types can add their firepower to the
Attack (these are basically large dune buggies, very little armor to obstruct fire).

Landers (need to make a new counter): Attack
2 Defense 3 Move (special) Cost 10. Landers are a specialized unit for the transportation
of smaller units (usually reinforcements) Reinforcements are recorded off map on a piece
of paper. They can LAND anywhere on the map during the movement phase. To LOAD/UNLOAD, the
Lander must stay in place the subsequent turn while the loading units move into or out of
the adjoining hex. The Lander BOOSTS into low orbit at the end of the turn and may not
reappear on the map for another 2 turns. Note that landers hop from point to point on the
moon itself, not back to Earth! Landers can hold 1 SHVY, 2 HVY, 4 LTNK, 2 MSL, 1
MHWZ, 6 Space Marine INFs

Changes to Existing Units

These units may be used in Lunar Ogre: MSL, SHVY, HVY, LTNK, HWZ, MHWZ, OGR, CRWLR

Everything costs quite a bit on the Moon, the assumption being that every combat unit
there was built there, with limited resources. Therefore, OGREs are
limited to Marks I and II. All other units cost an additonal buy point.

Combat

all TNK class vehicles perform as they do on Earth.

Missiles are another story. Every missile, with the exception of Cruise
missiles, must perform a stability check when attacking by rolling 1d6. If the player
rolls a 6, the missile flys off into the atmosphere and is lost. This roll applies to both
MSL tanks and the missiles that come with OGREs.

Howitzer rounds are assumed to be rocket assisted, but guidance is a key
factor in a near weightless vacumn. Therefore, every Howitzer attack must make a target
acquisition roll (another 1d6) before attacking. If the target is acquired (1-4) the
attack is as normal. If the target is lost (5,6), the attack may not be committed.

UNIT COUNTERS FOR OGRELUNA (and others)
A while back, a very talented young artist nicknamed "Cisco" did some variant Lunar counters for
OGRELuna. When his site went down, I thought all was lost. However, with the help of Web-Archive, I have
recovered some of them, including the Lunar units. So here are (some of) Cisco's old Variant art
counters!
These are all BMP files.

I've put a sample OGRE/GEV map on the lunar surface on the site. The three
structures are Moonbases Alpha Beta and Gamma. The dark line connecting them is an
underground rail line.

I've used this in conjunction with the new Cyberboard gameboxes (Thanks for the permission
Steve), and the results are a real hoot... I just finished soloing my "Battle of
Sirtis Crater" scenario with a horrendous defeat of the Combine Crater Raiders!